WHO INSPIRES YOU TO WRITE?

Ruth P. Saunders

Perhaps it was an encouraging word from a teacher that cleared your path to writing. Maybe reading the words of an accomplished author moved you. Possibly you just loved words and putting them together to convey ideas, images, or feelings. Or it could be a combination of things that inspired, motivated, or facilitated your becoming a writer.

Many people influenced me. A trusted high school teacher encouraged me to write for the school newspaper. Before that I had never considered writing, and those first encouraging words unlocked the door to future possibilities. An English professor in college supported my literary writing when I had doubts about my abilities. My professors in graduate school nurtured my academic writing.

But the first and foremost person instrumental in my becoming a writer was my mother. She did this through word and example.

As a child I was prone to frustration if every line of prose or picture did not flow from my fingers onto the page in final form. In exasperation I crumpled incomplete narratives and partial pictures into tight balls and tossed them into the trash—until my mother stopped me. She explained that real artists finish the work before evaluating it. I learned over time to separate the creative process from the editing process, to let the words flow without judgment until later, when it was time to revise and edit.

As many youngsters, I compared my work to that of others and despaired because mine fell short. My mother explained the reality that someone will always be ahead of you in any endeavor. Evaluating your products this way will make you unhappy and stop you from doing the good work you can do. Life is enriched when you learn from people rather than compete with them. My work is enhanced when I engage collaboratively with a writing community.

My mother went to business college when she finished high school and became a legal secretary. She read widely, and there were always books in the house. She read to her children until we could read on our own, and we were encouraged to think, question, and discuss ideas. These early exposures formed the foundation for self-expression in written words.

An adept storyteller, my mother enrolled in college English classes in her 60s at the Walterboro Salkehatchie branch of the University of South Carolina with the goal of becoming a better writer. Being the only older adult in a classroom of college students was daunting to her, but she wanted to commit her stories to paper for future generations.

She wrote and self-published her book, Low Country Children, in 1986. My mother died in 2013, but her work was the inspiration and model for the stories and essays I have shared with the Columbia II Writers’ Workshop for the past year and a half. I will self-publish my collection this summer. I know my mother would be pleased.

Who inspires you?